I might be barking up the wrong tree, but Shantae 3 was awesome. It had solid boss fights, tricky dungeons, and clutch platforming. They replaced her one-note transformations with slick platforming moves. Its been awhile but I still remember a fast pace, unpredictable humor, and compelling characters.

I played the two sequels but neither had the impact of Shantae and the Pirates Curse, where I can remember various levels, cutscenes, puzzles, u name it.

The only one I've played that I thought was decent was Double Dragon Neon and the Ducktales Remaster, and both of those were completely carried by Jake Kaufman's music I feel. You should play WWF Betrayel where you play the a beat'em up with The Rock and constantly hit the Rock Bottom on random security goons.

@janssenjam i have heard good things about pirate curse. and to be fair, the transformation mechanic is definitely the worst thing about shantae. so there might be some potential there

@vee i'll have to try those - though i do feel that it's kinda hilarious that their only good games may very well be just leeching off other series

will definitely be running wwf betrayal. game sounds fucking stupid

Honestly, even their games leeching off other series are barely any better than their shovelware garbage. I'm genuinely astounded how they still get any respect when their assets are so cheap these days , I played the demo for Contra Operation Galuga and that shit barely runs on Switch and looks/sounds like a dumpster.

As said Pirate's Curse is fun and Double Dragon Neon is rad. Also, while I'm not a Contra fan, my buddy is and he loved Contra 4 and is looking forward to Operation Galuga after playing the demo.

ducktales remastered is pretty damn good

I quite like both of the river city girls games

they worked on bloodstained: ritual of the night, and that was a solid 3.5/5.0 imo.

@averypaledog that would help to explain why i found that game to be extremely mediocre

CONTRA 4

the only one i can think of tbh

@averypaledog oh they did? That's definitely my favorite then

i get why you'd say that. i figured i'd just mention it just in case.

Liking Shantae is a matter of your perspective on Shantae and her appeal. Do you find her cute or attractive? If so you'll probably slop up everything to do with her. Everything else in the game is tertiary at best.

FYC: Mummy Demastered. Maybe the biggest move-to-game glowup money can buy. Ripper OST if nothing else

They're often heralded as a "little guy success story" type thing. They survived off of generally ok at best licensed games long enough for their original projects to grow and carry them. Still not a whole lot to truly love about their output though even as someone who usually defends licensed games.

I just found out they made that Wiiware game "LIT". Wonder what you'll think of it, always wanted to try that one but no clue if it's any good.

@poefred lit actually looks pretty neat. i'll check that one out soon. thanks for making me aware of it

I'll vouch for Contra 4. Its fun but also extremely derivative of the other games. And by derivative I mean its just a mishmosh of random stages from 1-3 lol

Pirates curse is their only good game its devastating

I don't know how much it counts, but they also developed the Advance Wars Remake that came out last year. I haven't played it yet but the originals are pretty fun and easy to get into strategy games.

@elassirish yeah that's pretty much what i'd expect and why i'm skeptical of it lmao. iunno what it was with the retro revival era and releasing 4th outings of beloved franchises that offered absolutely nothing new

i mean, i can only really think of one other off the top of my head, but still

@mediocreampuf they did indeed - but they're just worse looking versions of the originals imo

Supposedly the first Adventure Time game (Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!) and the Regular Show one they made are decent fun. Whether that's "by license game standards", or all-around big ups, or even complete bunk, I don't know, but I figured it was worth mentioning regardless if your on the hunt for a 6/10.

I know it's already marked in the notes, but despite only playing it for half an hour Mighty Switch Force (Hyper Drive Edition) was a pretty fun puzzler, even if it is rather low stakes. I should get back to it...

(reuploading since I fucked up the text formatting for the first word)

Gave both the newest shantae games a 6, they were decent

I agree with you in the sense that Shantae games are extremely overrated. I absolutely love the art but they're some of the most sauceless platformers I've ever played.

spit

I've finished all the shantae games, ducktales remastered and the first river city girls. With shantae, I enjoyed pirates curse and (despite how braindead easy it was) half genie hero, but didn't really care for the other games. Ducktales was pretty darn good as was RCG.

I think they've really dropped off in recent years and that became apparent with seven sirens. That was nothing more than a port of an apple arcade game with a premium price tag. The game itself was probably the most boring in the entire series bar Risky's Revenge on top of it. Sure, it had those cool anime cutscenes but that really can't carry a whole game.

As Dreamer said, I do think a big part of why Wayforward remains relevant is that a good chunk of their audience won't care as long as there is an attractive female lead and I think it's safe to say they caught onto this. After the mediocrity of seven sirens and spidersaurs (which I'll add runs like dogwater on switch just as the contra demo does), I approach anything new from them with the same degree of cautiousness I would with a new sonic title ngl.

It's not going to be for everybody but Aliens: Isolation is worth checking out

The Mighty Switch Force games were pretty good puzzle platformers. I also liked the Ducktales remake they did.